which he was to introduce among the people in the name of God might be clothed with due authority. The grandeur and solemnity of the scene in which their leader was to act such a conspicuous part would eminently tend to produce this effect. And their hearing with their own ears the voice of God speaking to his servant, would utterly cut off all future pretext for saying that Moses palined upon them a system of laws and statutes of his own devising, or imposed upon their credulity in any way whatever. In affirming this they would be witnesses against themselves. They had an ocular demonstration that the laws to which they were required to submit, were promulgated from the highest authority in the universe, of which Moses was merely the ministering mediator. It was not, however, merely from the men of that generation that God would exact this profound deference to the official character of Moses, but it was to be perpetuated in the line of their posterity to the latest days'that they may believe thee for ever,' not only as long as they live, but as ong as their descendants shall live. Accordingly our Savior himself recognises his authority, when he says in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, 'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them,' and 'if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, though one rose from the dead.' 10. Go unto the people and sanctify them, &c. That is, command and see that they sanctify themselves, as ap. pears from the next clause, and from v. 14. In like manner it is said that Job (ch. 1.5.) 'Sent and sanctified his VOL. I 21 | 11 And be ready against the third day for the third day the LORD twill come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. t ver. 16, 18. ch. 34. 5. Deut. 33. 2. sons;' i. e. ordered them to sanctify themselves; the agent, according to Scripture usage, being said to do that which he orders or procures to be done. We see at once the propriety of their being fitted by a special preparation for such a solemn interview with the Most High as now awaited them. When but a friend or neighbor is expected somewhat formally to visit us, the natural sentiment of decorum requires that our persons, our houses, our entertainment, should be invested with an air of more than usual neatness, order, and style. How much more, when the visiter is to be no other than the King of Kings himself! They were about to approach a holy God, a God of infinite purity, who cannot bear any unclean thing in his presence, and therefore they were to take care that no defilement was upon them. They were to wash their clothes and preserve their persons free from all impurity. They were even to abstain (v. 15) from all such innocent and lawful gratifications as might be unfavorable to the utmost degree of spirituality and abstractedness of soul in the exercises before them. Not that there was any intrinsic virtue in mere external ablutions and abstinences; they were to do this in token of their cleansing themselves from all sinful pollutions. While they were washing their clothes they were to think of washing their souls by repentance from the sins which they had contracted. Comp. Gen. 35.2. Lev. 15. 5. 11. The third day the Lord will come down, &c. That is, will come down in the cloudy and fiery pillar, the symbol of his presence, the visible Shekinah; another of the innumerable instances in 12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: u Hebr. 12. 20. which 'Lord' is used interchangeably with the term denoting his visible repreentative. His descent was to be in sight of all the people. We infer from this that the cloudy pillar rose to a great height in the heavens, for we believe there is no one of the several peaks of the Sinai group of mountains that could be seen from all the points where a body of two millions of men must have been encamped. Consequently, the pillar that surmounted the summit must have been very lofty. 12. Thou shalt set bounds, &c. Notwithstanding all the grandeurs and terrors of the scene, it was on the whole an illustrious instance of God's grace and condescension that he was pleased to vouchsafe to them such a signal display of himself on this occasion. Yet he would have them reminded of the humble awful reverence which should possess the minds of all those that worship him. Every semblance of unhallowed freedom and familiarity was to be studiously repressed. While Jehovah makes himself known as a Father, a Protector, a Guide, a Portion, he still would have his servants remember that he is 'the great and terrible God.' He therefore requires that they should worship him at a respectful and reverential distance, as being really unworthy even to lift up their eyes to the place which his footsteps were to make glorious. That ye go not up into the mount. Heb. bahar, in or upon the mount. It is important, if possible, to ascertain the exact idea, as otherwise it will be difficult to determine what is meant by the permission in the next verse, 'when 13 There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through: whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. x ver. 16, 19. the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount,' where the phraseology in the original is precisely the same, bahar, in or upon the mount. It undoubtedly signifies something more than merely approaching the base of the mountain, its 'border' or extreme foot, and conveys the idea of some degree of ascent or climbing towards the summit. 13. There shall not an hand touch it. Heb. 77 lo tigga bo yad, there shall not an hand touch him. Our pres ent translation evidently understands the mountain' as the object not to be touched with the hand. But that is forbidden in the clause immediately pre. ceding, and here the true sense is doubtless that which is yielded by a literal rendering of the original. If a man or a beast should break through the prescribed limits and advance towards the mountain, they were not to rush in after him, apprehend him, and thrust him back, but on the contrary were to slay him on the spot by casting stones or shooting darts at him from a distance. Such a bold intruder upon forbidden ground, such a daring transgressor of an express divine precept, was to be regarded as so profane, execrable, and abominable, that they were not permitted to pollute their hands by touching him. What a speaking commentary upon God's estimate of presumptuous sin!- - When the trumpet sound eth long they shall come up, &c, Heb. bimshok ha-yobel, in the drawing out of the trumpet; i. e. of the sound of the trumpet. On the true import of the word yobël here rendered 'trumpet, 6 see Note on Josh. 6. 4, 5. It is the A comparison of the present passage word applied to the sounding of the with Josh. 6. 4, 5, seems rather to con trum, et of jubilee, a term derived in firm the first of these as the genuine fact from this very root, and supposed sense. Then the Israelites were com to denote an instrument either made of manded to compass the walls of Jericho ram's horns, or constructed in that form. for six days in succession, the priests It was blown as a signal for the camp continually blowing the rams' horns, or congregation to assemble, or to do and on the seventh when they make something in concert. Throughout the a long blast with the ram's horn (Heb. rest of the context the word for 'trum- bimshok be-keren pet' is entirely different, viz., DD sho-ha-yobel, in the drawing out (f the phar, for which reason some critics have sound made) by the horn of the ram, supposed that the phrase in this place &c.-all the people shall shout.' By denotes a signal given by order of Mo- this is probably implied that when the ses in the camp for the approach of the sounding shall have been long continued, people to the base of the mount, where- after they shall have heard it from day as in the sequel the sound of the E to day for six days, and through nearly shophar was among the supernatural the whole day on the seventh, then at sounds and sights that distinguished the completion of the last circuit they the august occasion. This however is should shout, and the walls would fall an interpretation which cannot well be down. So here we are probably to unreconciled with the context. Again, derstand that when the signal blast of there is great uncertainty as to what is the trumpet had been for a considerable precisely to be understood by the sound time continued, they were to come up of the trumpet's being drawn out or to the mount.' But this latter clause is prolonged; whether it signifies a grou- if any thing still more difficult of exing intensity, or a remission, softening, plication than the preceding. Does it dying away, of the sound. The Gr. gives mean the removal of the foregoing re the latter sense, 'When the voices, ard striction? It would seem that our trans the trumpets, and the cloud are departed lators supposed it did not, but implied from the mountain, then shall ye go up.' rather that at the given signal the peoThus too the Syriac, 'When the trumpet ple were to approach to or towards the shall have become silent, then it shall mount as far as the prescribed limits be permitted to you to go up.' So also would permit. the Chal. according to Fagius' version; matter is not 'When the trumpet shall be withdrawn, which has then shall they have leave to go up.' But it is very doubtful whether this is correctly rendered. The original be-migad shophara signifies according to Cartwright, Cum protracta fuerit buccina, when the (sound of the) trumpet shall have been prolonged; and thus substantially agrees with the Hebrew, the root negad answering precisely to mashak, and both signifying to draw out, extend, prolong. The Vulg. on the other hand adopts the former, Cum cœperit clangere buccina, when the trumpet shall begin to sound. But this view of the favored by the original, yaalu bahar, come up in, into, or upon the mount. The phrase is most evidently directly the reverse of the prohibition in v. 12, "Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount (Heb. hishshameru lakem aloth bahar, beware for yourselves of going up in, into, or upon the mount.' Such is the literal rendering of the two clauses, and how are they to be reconciled? As read in the letter they show a plain discrepancy, the one permitting what the other forbids. Some have proposed to surmount the difficulty by understand 14 ¶ And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and y sanctifed the people; and they washed their clothes. 15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: a come not at your wives. Hebr. 12. 18, 19. Rev. 4. 5. & c ver. 9. ch. 40. 34. 2 Chron. 10, & 4. 1. e Hebr. 12. 21. is ¶ And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were b thunders and lightnings, and a c thick cloud upon the mount, and the d voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp e trembled. b Ps. 77. 18. y ver. 10. z ver. 11. a 1 Sam. 21. 4, 5. Zech. 8. 5. & 11. 19. 7.3. 1 Cor. 7. 5. 5. 14. d Rev. 1. and the fiftieth after the departure from Egypt. The morning was ushered in with terrible thunders and lightnings, and a cloud of deep lowering darkness resting upon the summit of the mount. The heavens and the earth and the elements conspired to signalize, in the most impressive manner, the advent of the Creator and Lord of the universe to this part of his dominions. Nearly every object of grandeur and awe of which we can conceive, enters into the description. Thunder, lightning, tempest, the blackness of darkness, smoke, fire, earthquake, and the trumpet of God! Never, in all probability, till the light of the last morning shall dawn, and the trump of the archangel shall peal its summons to arouse the dead, will such a spectacle be again witnessed on earth. We have only to reflect upon the design of this august visitation to be satisfied that such an apparatus of awful accompaniments was in the highest degree appropriate and seasonable. A deep moral impression in regard to the law about to be delivered was to be produced. Every thing accordingly was so ordered as to afford the most striking display of the glorious majesty of the Lawgiver, to point out the character of the law in its strictness and rigor, and its tremendous penalty, and withal to furnish a preintimation of the day of judgment, when every transgression of it will come into account. He who has made us, and who perfectly knows our frame, knows how best to suit his dis pensations to our condition. It is nc matter of surprise, therefore, that He ing the clause as an ironical concession; as if God had intended to intimate that before the trumpet blast was heard they should be strictly charged not to over. pass the boundaries, but that after that time, and when the sound began to wax louder and louder, then they might ascend if they pleased, if they dared; for then the terrors of the scene would be of themselves so tremendous and repulsive, that there would be no special need of any express veto to forbid a nearer approach. But such a sense seems hardly consistent with the solemnity of the scene, and we are constrained on the whole to yield our assent to the import affixed to the words by the old versions, viz., that the limitation was to be annulled and the mountain freely ascended when the blast of the trumpet and the other supernatural sounds had been so long drawn out and protracted as to have become scarcely audible, and to be dying away upon the ear. In other words we think that the Sept. rendering, though paraphrastic, gives the true sense; 'When the voices, and the trumpets, and the cloud, are departed from the mountain, then shall ye go up.' As they were to remain encamped for a year at the base of the mountain it might be important for them to be assured of the divine permission to ascend from time to time to its top, and devoutly contemplate a spot recently hallowed by the footsteps of the glory of Jehovah, 16. And it came to pass on the third day, &c. The eventful day at length arrived, the sixth of the month Sivan, who has an unlimited control over all the inlets to our sentient spirits should see fit, when the occasion warrants, to make the senses an avenue to the mind, and to seize the conscience or overawe the heart by speaking to the eyes or the ears, or to both at once. Such was his good pleasure on the delivery of the law from Sinai; and it is a consideration full of solemn import, that if God was truly awful in the harmless unconsuming fire at the bush of Horeb, and in the guiding and protecting pillar of cloud; if he was dreadful at Sinai, coming in fierce and threatening flames to promul gate his law; what must he be coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!" If the sound of that trumpet which proclaimed the approach of God to Israel was almost sufficient to kill the living with fear; what must be the trumpet which shall awake the dead? Whatever majesty and solemnity distinguished the giving of the Law, the whole earth shall eventually behold it exceeded in the consumination of the gospel.- In the morning. Heb. bihyoth habboker, in the being made to be of the morning, implying something peculiar and extraordinary in the atmospherical phenomena that ushered in that memorable morn. The usual phrase for in the morning' is a babboker, and if nothing more than that simple idea was meant, it is not easy to account for the present unusual phraseology.- -T And there were voices and lightnings, &c. Heb. va-yehi koloth. Thunders are undoubtedly meant, a sense frequently conveyed by the Heb. word ' voice,' in proof of which see Note on Gen. 3. 8. The gloomy mass of cloud was unquestionably the seat of the thunders and lightnings which pealed and flashed from its bosom. And as the pillar of cloud was regarded as the throne of God, we see the pertinency of the allusion to this narrative in the mystic Ekol shophar, the voice or sound of a trumpet. There is no clear authority in the original for the use of the mote definite expression the trumpet,' as il in allusion to some trumpet previously mentioned. At the same time we are not prepared to affirm, although the yobel and the shophar weie undoubtedly different, that they may not both refer to the same supernatural sounds heard on this occasion. The use of the term in either case may per haps simply be to intimate that a sound was miraculously produced bearing a strong resemblance to that of a trumpet, though immeasurably louder. Perhaps the clangor of an unearthly trumpet was mingled in the din of the elements to deepen the conviction that the whole scene was preternatural. Thunder and lightning, and earthquake, and dark clouds were phenomena with which they were in some degree acquainted, and had there been nothing more, it might possibly have been thought, either then or in after ages, that the spectacle wit nessed was merely an extraordinary tempest, the effect solely of natural causes, though acting with unwonted violence. But when a sound was heard shrill and piercing like the notes of a trumpet, but rising above the hoarse peals, the roaring and the crash of the thunder, such as was never heard be fore in any commotion of the elements, and such as never could issue from an instrument made by human hands or blown by human breath, no wonder that the impression upon the people was ter rific beyond all conception. No wonder that the terms voice of the archangel and trump of God' should have arisen from this incident of the dread pheno. mena which struck the senses of assem bled Israel at the base of the holy mount, It is undoubtedly from the circumstance |